By Hanami Nishine and Renta. Released in Japan as “Shiitagerareta Maihime wa Seijo no Loop ni Ichigo de Aragau” on the Shousetsuka ni Narou website. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Zihan Gao.

Now that we have so many of them, to the point where protagonists are actually familiar with the genre, I think it’s appropriate to say that some people are getting a little too into the “trapped in an otome game” mindset. Admittedly, in this particular case it appears to be a coping mechanism to try to ignore the main character’s wretched life to date, but still, a lot of things happen here because Amelia, the titular princess, is stuck in “there’s nothing I can do to stop this route from happening, so I’ll try something else”. Now, as it turns out, it is quite difficult to stop the route, but generally speaking, I’d like people to try. That said, I will forgive Amelia for this, as she is also a bit of an airhead, even before she gets her memories from Japan back, and therefore knows what can save her. Strawberries.

When we first see Amelia, she’s being pushed to the ground and having her late mother’s necklace stolen from her by her stepsister. She currently lives in bare poverty in the Fifth’s Consort’s home, which barely gets any food or supplies, forcing her to learn how to farm and climb walls, giving her a tanned look. (The artist presumably saw “silver hair” and proceeded to ignore this entirely.) She has one major thing she can do: she can summon strawberries and strawberry-themed things. (This is not as bizarre as it might sound, given her late mother summoned watermelons.) She’s very familiar with this scene, however, as this is the 5th time it’s happened. Her tormenter is looping routes, trying to complete every target male, and the last one on the list is Amelia’s own fiance. Time to fight back! Wait, no, she has little confidence and hasn’t seen her fiance in four years. Time to sell strawberries!

Amelia is a very familiar type, being naive, a bit daft, and unaware of her own charms, though that last one is explained by the abuse she’s suffered. Her one remaining servant is her butler/father figure, who stays on partly as he had a crush on her mother but mostly as it’s the right thing to do. As for the absent fiance, I liked him a lot as well. Once he figures out what’s actually happening, he’s quick to take steps. He also cries a lot, which is rare even among shoujo romantic male leads, and it’s not made fun of. The solution to all this comes as a slight surprise, but the clues are there if you look for them, so I accepted it. Most of all, this book, despite its dark backstory, has a light, silly core, doing things like tripping up the main villainess by having her slip on strawberry jam, etc. The heroine has a motif, and by god, she’s going to use it.

This is done in one, which makes sense – hard to see this plot getting stretched more. The author also writes The Dragon’s Soulmate is a Mushroom Princess!, but that doesn’t have strawberries, so can’t be as good.